Road trip in the Australian outback : from Adelaide to Kings Canyon

We leave Adelaide, after 3 nights with Pascal, Gwen and the kids, and they made us feel at home. We had a great time and are well rested to start our road trip in the outback to go visit the famous site of Uluru.

Now starts a 4 day road trip.

Day 1 – From Adelaide to Ranges View – 232 miles

We leave Adelaide in the morning. This first day is going to be almost only driving. We don’t have too many stops along the way planned. The only stop we did was at the Bumbunga lake, that is supposed to be pink. Unfortunately there isn’t enough water at this time of year for us to see the nice pink color.

But the lake remains beautiful and unreal, there is even a Loch Ness monster inside…

The landscapes on the way are now very dry and the temperatures start to climb. We stop along the ocean in Port Germein to take a last cold shower before heading into the outback.

A few miles later we stop in Port Augusta. Where we make sure to fill up the gas tank and buy some last provisions, because from now on the gas prices are going to sky rocket, and we don’t know when the next supermarket will be. We already see a difference in gas prices with Adelaide… And hop on the Stuart Highway that goes from Port Augusta, all the way north to Darwin.

We end the day just 35 miles north of Port Augusta. We stop in a free campsite. And it is already very hot, so we have dinner on a picnic table outside, because the air is way too hot inside the van.

We spend the evening outside in this beautiful place.

Where we are spectators to a beautiful sunset.

The colors here in the outback are very different than anything we have seen before. It is amazing.

We are sitting in our camping chairs facing the sunset. Simply incredible. And we are all alone !

When the sun sets (a lot earlier than in New Zealand), we decorate the van with some Christmas decorations we bought in Adelaide. Since we will be spending Christmas in the van, we decided to decorate a little bit.

Day 2 – Ranges View to Coober Pedy – 305 miles

We spent a very nice and calm first night in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully the temperatures dropped a little during the night so we weren’t too hot. We leave early morning to the town of Coober Pedy, we have to drive over 300 miles so we leave early before the heat gets unbearable.

Now we really are in the outback. The biggest village we pass counts 200 inhabitants, aside from that we cross only 2 other villages, with less than 50 inhabitants each. And every gas station is 50% more expensive than in Adelaide.

We stop in Woomera, an artificial town of 200 inhabitants. This town was built in 1947 as HQ for experimental British rocket and nuclear tests. The city is still today an active Department of Defense test site. There are a couple museums and old aircrafts and missiles displayed in some parks. When we arrive the city seems completely dead. No living soul in sight. It looks like the museum is closed, so we will have to stick to the missiles displayed outside.

On the road we stop a few times to admire the beautiful landscape of the outback. These large dry plains of red dirt, or salt flats are surreal.

At one point we meet a lizard trying to perfect his tan, and tells us he is jealous of Matt’s perfect tan under that tank top !

As we drive we stopped counting the number of dead kangaroos on the side of the road, and get eaten by ravens and raptors…

We stop for lunch in the last village before Coober Pedy : Glendambo, 155 miles away. It is around noon and it is getting very very hot. In this town we find the last gas station before Coober Pedy. But the thing is that the gas here is SUPER expensive. So we decide not to fuel up, we think we can probably make it to Coober Pedy, and if we don’t we have a spare jerrycan full of cheap fuel from Adelaide. And less than 25 miles before arriving our tank is empty and we have to fill it…

So we arrive in Coober Pedy in the afternoon, and initially we had planned on visiting the city the next day. But it is so hot outside that we don’t want to just sit in a camping with no shade, and prefer try to go find some cooler place. We check the temperature in Coober Pedy, to see if it is really hot, or if we’re simply not used to the heat anymore. And it is 100 degrees outside, knowing that we aren’t using the air conditioning in the van to save on fuel, we guess it was well over 104 inside the van. All that to say, it was really hot after all.

So why even stop in Coober Pedy? Well to visit it’s opal mines. Indeed, Coober Pedy is the world’s opal capital.

And you can visit a few mines, still active or not. We decide to visit the Old Timers Mine, a mine that was hand dug in 1916 and isn’t active anymore. We went down inside the mine and followed a self guided tour.

The visit was very interesting at 30 feet underground.

There was even an exhibit showing the famous underground houses people lived in.

And to add to that, it was very pleasant to spend over half an hour in the nice and cool underground !

Here, living underground is a lifestyle in Coober Pedy. A lot of houses, hotels, restaurants and even churches are built underground. And since. At 5 pm it is still 100 degrees outside we decide to go visit two churches. The first one, the St Peter & Paul’s Catholic Church, is the very first underground church of the city.

And boy the air here is even nicer and cooler than in the mine. This church is pretty small but very cute. And it is surreal to see a church that was built underground.

The second one is the Catacomb Church, a little bigger than the first one, and located a little further in the city.

The village of Coober Pedy seems dead, but it’s probably because with this heat everybody stays inside and there aren’t many tourists.

In the heart of the village we can find the Spaceship. This is a left-over prop from the movie Pitch Black, which crash-landed on Hutchison street.

After filling up the gas tank and taking a nice shower at the gas station, we decide to sit down for a drink in the local pub, and it’s nice cold AC! It is still way too hot inside the van to just stay in a campsite.

Around 7 pm, the sky gets darker and it starts to rain a little bit. So we leave to go to a free campsite 8 miles away from the village. The spot is amazing, and once again we are all alone.

Because of the clouds in the sky, we thought we wouldn’t be able to see the sunset. But we were wrong, and got to experience one of the most beautiful sunsets we have ever seen.

The colors are absolutely incredible.

We can’t get enough of it.

We take plenty of pictures, even though none of them correctly translates the beauty of what we have just experienced.

A second night in the outback, and a second incredible sunset.

The temperatures have finally dropped and we will get a good night of sleep.

Day 3 – Coober Pedy to Kings Canyon 470 miles

18 miles north of Coober Pedy lies the Breakaways National Park. This park was used as a setting in many movies (Pitch Black, Mad Max 3). It is also home to the world’s longest fence : the Dog Fence (3,300 miles long between Surfer’s Paradise and Ceduna). This is an anti dingo fence.

We decide to go there just after sunrise to have beautiful colors. The last 6 miles before arriving is on a dirt road, so not really recommended with a campervan. But the guy at the mine yesterday told us the road was totally fine if there wasn’t any heavy rain during the night. So we decide to go (mind you, this is a dirt road, but it is way better kept than the Ruta 40 highway in Argentina …). We arrive at the Breakaways a little before 7 am.

And with the sun that just came out, the colors are beautiful.

The landscape is breathtaking.

It feels like we are all alone on Mars, except we can breathe!

We walk around the cliffs a little bit to admire the scenery.

 Magnificent, amazing…

I don’t know enough English adjectives to describe how beautiful this park is.

We have breakfast here before heading back on the road. The temperatures have clearly dropped, we even had to dig out our sweaters from the back of the van.

We then head to Erldunda, last town before the long awaited Uluru. On the way we pass by only two small towns. The first one, Marla, where we stop to have lunch in front of the gas station. Once again we call these towns but these are closer to simple truck stops than actual villages. And the second one, Kulgera, even smaller than Marla. And it is here that we cross the border between South Australia and Northern Territory. So we stop for a quick pic.

So we arrive in Erldunda, it’s only 3 pm and 92 degrees. We had a can of Red Bull in the car so we feel great. And we decide to drive all the way to Kings Canyon instead of Uluru. The reason being that thunderstorms are forecasted around Uluru over the next couple of days. Which means the colors of the sun won’t be as pretty. So we go towards Kings Canyon, and we made the right choice, because the rain starts pouring and we can see huge thunderstorms south to us (where Uluru is). The road to Kings Canyon is very pretty.

And the menacing clouds give it a nice effect.

We arrive early evening around Kings Canyon just before the sun sets. And we find a free spot for the night, in a gravel pit, by the main road and the carcass of a dead camel in the middle. Creepy but free !